Tag Archives: Aogiri

The appearance of the real One-Eyed Owl catches the investigators off guard, which results to their quick defeat. Just when the ghoul is about to strike Juuzou, Shinohara shields his subordinate, receiving the deadly blow instead. Juuzou, upon seeing the bloodied form of Shinohara, continues to fight the enemy but he fails to injure it. Just then, Arima finally arrives and he immediately attacks the Owl.

Akira Mado is commanded by Yoshitoki Washuu to assist the 4th Division Squad led by Koutarou Amon who is already fighting with Ken Kaneki. Tatara flings Seidou to Noro after he refuses to tell the whereabouts of Hoji. The other Aogiri members, including Ayato and Naki, also participate in the clash between the doves and ghouls.

The One-Eyed Owl swallows the unconscious body of Yoshimura before fleeing after Arima starts to overpower her. It is then revealed that Takatsuki Sen is Eto, who is also known as the One-Eyed Owl of Aogiri.

Both Kaneki and Amon suffer from heavy injuries as their battle comes to an end. Kaneki loses consciousness for a while but when he wakes up, he finds himself in Anteiku, where he is greeted by his best friend, Hideyoshi.

Yukinori Shinohara gets discharged from the hospital after sustaining some injuries during his fight with Kaneki, who is still having a hard time controlling the kakuja that he gained from cannibalizing other ghouls. Back in the CCG office, Seidou Takizawa invites Koutarou Amon to eat out, and the latter asks his partner Akira Mado to come with them.

However, Akira ends up getting drunk, and she begins to let out her pent-up emotions as she blames Amon for the death of his father. Amon himself feels responsible for Kureo Mado’s demise, and upon seeing Akira’s suffering, he vows to himself that he will protect her. He then starts to do some training until he reaches his limit the next morning after he executes more than 7,000 push-ups.

A short background story about Juuzo Suzuya is also shown. It turns out that he was raised as a pet by a ghoul called “Big Madam” who trained him as a scrapper in the ghoul restaurant. Because of the way he was treated and the environment where he grew up, Rei, who is later called Juuzo, developed an erratic and violent behavior without any apparent sense of pain. Big Madam’s hideout was then raided by the CCGs who took custody of Juuzo. The child’s skills were deemed useful by the officers, that is why he was trained to become a CCG investigator alongside Shinohara who has always shown him affection and sympathy for the kind of life that he had from the hands of the ghoul.

Towards the end of the episode, several CCG investigators and high-ranking officials are seen attending a conference led by Yoshitoki Washuu. He commands the Owl Suppression Unit and gives them the task of locating the Owl and Aogiri’s base before hunting them down as part of their extermination campaign.

The fourth chapter is filled with action scenes as the whole episode takes place in Cochlea, a secret detention center that confines ghouls rated C through SS. The Aogiri members attack the facility to free the other ghouls, alerting Amon and Akira who are at the internment center that time to obtain information from Donato Porpora about Aogiri’s plans. Failing to attain any data from Donato, the two investigators join the security members in fighting the enemies, but Akira ends up being bitten on her leg by Naki.

Shinohara arrives at Cochlea and immediately sets into action as he encounters Ayato Kirishima, who recognizes his father’s kakuja from Shinohara’s Arata proto. Suzuya, on the other hand, easily wipes out a number of ghouls before facing his former classmates from the CCG Academy, Kurona and Nashiro Yasuhisa.

Meanwhile, Kaneki releases Shachi, and the latter instantly picks up the scent of Rize from Kaneki. The two engage in a battle, but with Shachi’s speed and dexterity in martial arts, he easily hurls Kaneki down. Eto appears and asks Shachi if he wants to see Rize as she addresses him as Mr. Kamishiro.

Before the episode comes to its conclusion, the scene shows Kaneki in a room full of skulls and bones, and as he mutters to himself about protecting Anteiku, Touka and Hide, he unleashes his kakuja for the first time.

The beginning of the episode shows a brief recollection during the first battle of CCG against the One-eyed Owl. Kureo Mado and Yukinori Shinohara were faced with the overwhelming strength of the ghoul, but it was Kishou Arima who rushed headlong into battle with the enemy.

The scene is cut and the setting resumes to the present time where the high-ranking CCG investigators are having a conference. They discuss the situation regarding the Aogiri group and its connection with the “eye-patched” ghoul. After the meeting, Shinohara and Iwao express their opinion about the apparent changes with the One-Eyed Owl during their first encounter with him compared to the most recent one.

Shinohara formally introduces Akira Mado asKoutarou Amon’s new partner. Akira is the daughter of Kureo Mado and the rival of Seidou Takizawa who is her classmate from the Academy. She presents her accurate deductions concerning the ghouls such as the binge eater, the Gourmet and the Aogiri Tree to Amon, Suzuya, Shinohara, Seidou and Houji.

Touka, on the other hand, spends most of her time studying for the entrance exam to get in Kamii University. The staff of Anteiku are also busy preparing for the opening of the cafe after it was closed during their fight with Aogiri. Uta, Itori and Yomo visit the coffee shop to celebrate its reinstatement together with Touka, Hinami, Nishio, Yoshimura, Koma and Irimi.

Meanwhile, Kaneki continues to work with Aogiri with Ayato as his partner. Towards the end of the episode, Eto is seen entering a room and undressing her bandages. The lower part of her face is shown as she smiles while uttering the name of Kaneki.

The opening of the episode simultaneously shows Hideyoshi bicycling as he looks for his best friend Kaneki who in turn walks out of the cell where he defeated his torturer, Jason. The battle between the CCG investigators and the Aogiri members continues as Shinohara and Kuroiwa equip themselves with their quinques and aratas to fight the “One-Eyed Owl” alongside Hirako and Amon.

Meanwhile, Yomo teams up with Tsukiyama and Uta to fight against Aogiri’s Noro but they fail to inflict any serious damage to him since he has strong regenerative abilities. Noro withdraws from the fight when his alarm rings and the other three decide not to follow him. On the other hand, Touka gets beaten by Ayato in a one-sided match where the latter snips her kagune. Just before she loses her consciousness, Kaneki saves her and begins to fight Ayato as well. Their battle only lasts for a short time as Noro picks up Ayato and leaves the building. Just then, the Aogiri hideout suddenly begins to crumble and Tsukiyama arrives just in time to free Banjou and three other ghouls from the collapsing building. The “Owl” saves Shinohara and Kuroiwa when a tank almost topples them before disappearing from the scene while Kaneki carries Touka outside to safety along with Nishio. However, Kaneki immediately walks back to the hideout as he asks Nishio to look after Touka. While he is looking at the corpses, Eto appears before him.

Afterwards, Kaneki comes back to where Touka is to tell her that he will not be going back to Anteiku anymore. He informs her that he will be going over to Aogiri, much to her surprise. With that, Kaneki starts to walk away, leaving Touka as she frailly attempts to reach and stop him.

Kaneki is seen back in the hideout where Eto, Noro, Tatara and a displeased Ayato are waiting for him. The four Aogiri members start to leave, and Kaneki follows them.

You see, I only began reading the manga last week after I finished watching the anime. The last episode was a total cliffhanger so I decided to read the series especially when I found out that it already concluded. Be warned, though. This post contains some spoilers (if you haven’t read the manga yet) and some possible long rants lol. Yosh! Let’s start!

The first few chapters of the manga reminded me of the scenes in the anime although I instantly recognized the parts that were a little bit altered. Since the first season of the anime was too short, I couldn’t completely connect with the characters that much. But with the manga, I was able to establish a more in-depth understanding of them, especially of the protagonist, Ken Kaneki. The story is definitely tragic and more than half of the scenes are vicious and gory. (Therefore, this manga is not for the fainthearted!) As you may probably know, the story revolves around ghouls devouring humans and the protagonist here unfortunately ended up being a hybrid after a ghoul’s organs were transplanted into his body after a certain incident. He tried to suppress it at first, but he eventually learned to embrace his new self after getting help from other ghouls at Anteiku. However, after he was kidnapped and tortured by Jason, Ken began to drastically change. From being a timid and frail teenager, he suddenly turned into an atrocious ghoul who sought more power to protect those around him. He faced a lot of enemies, including the CCGs and Aogiri members. And that was where the climax of the story began.

This is probably a given due to the nature of the story, but still, I must definitely give all the action scenes an A+! Browsing through the pages of each chapter kept me at the edge of my seat since almost all chapters contain grisly images of ghouls and human being severed into pieces. These parts would definitely look more awesome in the anime adaptation, so I’m extremely hoping for a second season!

While reading each volume, I also developed a sense of connection with the characters, especially with Kaneki and Amon. There were also quite a handful of surprises that left me astounded, confused and depressed. Most of the characters were given some brief background details that explained their stance in the latter part of the story. Take, for example, the case of Suzuya. When he first appeared in the story, I ultimately despised him. But toward the last chapter, I suddenly found myself sympathizing with him. The character development of most characters were distinctly written that they’d make you change your impression toward a certain individual. You could never be certain whether the character was a heroine or a villain.

I had no particular problems with the story so far. Well, not until I reached the climax. The battle between the CCG and Anteiku ghouls was probably the best fight in the series. It also clarified some questions about Yoshimura and the One-Eyed Owl but other than that, the last chapter was a disappointment for me. Disappointing in a way that the ending didn’t particularly clear a lot of issues. In fact, several questions remained unanswered. Ishida-sensei did give some hints about some issues but they were too implicit for me to comprehend since I could only make assumptions about the ending. The way Kaneki died looked plain to me. I was expecting a more intense fight between him and Arima. Kaneki’s death was definitely tragic, but also upsetting at the same time since he didn’t even manage to deliver a fatal blow to the investigator. Kishou Arima also didn’t have a lot of scenes in the manga. No background story was given and the only thing I know about him is that he’s exceptionally good and apathetic. ( I also read the spin-off manga about him but so far, nothing really significant has been revealed about Arima.) Questions about Uta and his group Pierrot still haunt me as well. The body of Amon wasn’t also shown though he was presumed to be dead. Same with Kaneki’s friend, Hide. And what happened to Hinami and Rize? You see, I have a lot of questions and I’m not sure if I just missed some important details while reading but I would only be satisfied if the announcement regarding Ishida-san’s “surprise” would be about a sequel.

So if I have to rate it, I’d probably give it 7 out of 10 points. The peak of the story was truly gripping but the end of the series left me discontented.

(The series already concluded last month, September 18, but I only started watching all the episodes yesterday. Hence, I decided to just make a summary of the final episode even though it’s too late already. ^^)

Apart from all the physical torture that Kaneki has endured from “Jason”, he also suffers from mental torment from Rize. She asks him about his mother, and Kaneki recollects the time he spent with his mom until she passed away due to overwork. He strongly believes that “it’s better to be hurt than to hurt others“, just like what his mother taught him. Meanwhile, Kaneki continues to count backwards by sevens from one thousand as ordered by Yamori to keep himself sane amidst the excruciating agony he experiences.

His fingers and toes are repeatedly extracted using a pair of pincers, due to his extraordinary regenerative powers. Jason also inserts a red-headed centipede in Kaneki’s ear, as he begs him to just finish him off immediately. Instead, Jason presents him with an unbearable task, and that is to choose who he is going to kill between Shu and Haru. However, since Kaneki cannot choose between the two who helped him earlier, Jason decides to kill both of them. Because of that, Kaneki blames himself for not being able to do anything. Rize continues to mock and daunt him for his inability to change himself and his beliefs.

She proceeds to remind him about his mother, and Kaneki soon falls into her trap. He finally gives in to his ghoulish psyche, and as his world drowns in red and his hair turns white, he devours Rize and finally embraces and acknowledges himself as a GHOUL.

Back in the chamber, Jason, who is still clueless about the changes in his prey, tells Kaneki that their time is about to end since the doves are closing in on the place. As Jason releases his kagune to devour him, Kaneki quickly unchains himself and bites the Aogiri member instead. During the course of their battle, Kaneki launches his Rinkaku kagune which eventually knocks Jason off even with his incomplete kakuja. He remains conscious though, as Kaneki questions him about numbers. He repeatedly strikes him as Jason begins counting backwards by sevens. Sitting on top of the tearful ghoul, Kaneki cracks his finger, a trait he inherited from his torturer, as he opens his mouth to devour him.

(Like what most fans probably felt, I was also kinda disappointed with the ending. It was a total cliffhanger, and because I was eager to know what’s gonna happen next, I decided to start reading the manga from the very start. I want to develop a much more established connection with the characters, especially with Kaneki. On the other hand, I must also give my compliments to the animation team. The fight scenes put me at the edge of my seat, and the amount of blood and brutality left me cringing. (But at the same time, there was this part of me that still wanted to continue watching them.) Though there were some changes in the story, the team still did a great job compressing some of the important parts in just 12 episodes. (Although the new characters were not properly introduced and the sequence of events were not put in the correct order like in the manga.) Anyway,the story has just begun, so I’m pretty sure that there will be a second season to describe the continuation of the events following the transformation of the main protagonist. And I’m gonna wait for it! ^^)